The Voyage Of The Sardine–Anne Quemere Versus The Atlantic: A lot of ocean rowing, like any sport, can be a bit, well, boring. So TWC has been pretty picky about what to follow. But when there are rowers out there doing something either totally ridiculous (Jim Shekhdar trying to row the Southern Ocean) or first (Maud Fontenoy becoming the first woman to row the Atlantic west to east), we’re on it. And so we’d like to direct your attention to a scrap of ocean some ways south and west of Nova Scotia. There, plugging away at her oars, is a gutsy French woman named Anne Quemere, 37, who has already crossed the Atlantic east to west (in 56 days, setting the record for a woman). If she gets to her native Brittany in France, she’ll become the first woman to row an ocean both ways solo. Anne’s been out there two weeks now, after departing from Cape Cod, and of the two Atlantic directions this one is much more brutal. The route takes the rower north, into cold and the Atlantic storm track (the east-west route is downwind in the tropics). It took Maud Fontenoy an incredible 117 days to complete her row, and it almost killed her in one storm she capsized 18 times). In addition to Anne’s website, the venerable Ocean Rowing Society is tracking her progress. The tracking chart there shows a little loop where she was blown backwards in a recent storm. But her latest report describes perfect rowing conditions:

“After a short, restless sleep, dawn finds me dashing by in the current, pushed by a 20 to 25 knot wind. The centerboard low and the ballasts filled with 130 liters of water to stabilize the Connetable and increase its energy, at times, we go at more than 7 knots along that racing track where I am the only pilot. The speed is made ever more pleasant by the feeling that I am regaining the time lost.”

Anne’s track will cover 2700 miles and she hopes to make the voyage in under 90 days. Yes, 90 days would be a good time. That’s how hard this is…



The Sardine: “It’s half boat, half sub, and I’m gonna need the sub part…”